Mark Lindsay – Grasby/Doncaster

March 2014

More jail for man who pretended to be a porn star to seduce a 13-year-old girl

A businessman from Doncaster who pretended to be a porn star to seduce a 13-year-old girl has received another jail term.

Mark Lindsay was originally arrested as part of a North Yorkshire Police investigation into a child sexual exploitation ring that resulted in 10 men being jailed for a total of 34 years in May last year.

Lindsay, aged 33, got four-and-a-half years after he admitted meeting a child for sexual purposes, having sexual activity with a child, and meeting a child following sexual grooming on an internet dating website.

Following his arrest, his DNA was later matched with a sample taken at the scene of a sex attack in Doncaster market place on February 24, 2010.

It led to him being brought from prison to Sheffield Crown Court where he admitted sexually assaulting a 19-year-old woman.

Jailing him for a further 33 months, Mr Justice Griffith Williams told him: “But for that offending you would not have been brought to justice for this offence.”

David Hall, prosecuting, said Lindsay found the woman in a distressed state, sitting on a stall and crying in the empty market place at 10pm. He tried to comfort her and ask what was wrong and, although he was polite, she felt uncomfortable.

Lindsay then went to walk away but turned back, made a sexual comment and exposed himself.

Mr Hall said of the victim: “She was terrified and frozen with fear. She thought she was going to be raped.”

Lindsay then performed a sex act on himself before quickly walking away.

A DNA sample was collected and a description circulated, but Lindsay escaped justice until he was arrested by North Yorkshire Police on May 30, 2012, over the other matter. His DNA sample was found to match that taken from the market place.

Lindsay was living in Grasby, near Grimsby, at the time of his arrest.

He admitted the Doncaster sex assault.

His 33-month jail term will run from this week alongside his other sentence.

May 2013

A BUSINESSMAN who sexually exploited a 13-year-old girl he met online has been jailed for four and a half years.

Mark Stuart Lindsay, 33, travelled to York to have sexual activity with the teenager and persuaded her to travel to his Lincolnshire home to have sex with him and his friends, said Paul Cleasby, prosecuting.

He got her to lie to her mother and urged her to steal money for the rail fare to his home, while offering her payment for sex and the possibility of getting paid for performing in a porn film, York Crown Court heard.

Jailing Lindsay, the Recorder of York, Judge Stephen Ashurst, said: “You are someone with some experience of life and you made a conscious decision to strike up a relationship with a girl you knew was only 13. She is a child. You knew that and I am satisfied here you exploited that to the full.”

Lindsay, then of Clixby Lane, Grasby, near Grimsby, pleaded guilty to arranging a meeting with a child for sexual purposes, having sexual activity with a child and meeting a child following sexual grooming.

His barrister, Chloe Fairley, said he was “deeply ashamed”. “He looks at the person who committed these offences with a good deal of revulsion.”

Lindsay was having financial problems because his business was not doing well, was drinking heavily and using cannabis, and could not explain why he had committed the offences, she said.

Mr Cleasby said Lindsay contacted the girl through an internet dating website where her profile said she was 18 but she quickly told him she was 13. In seven weeks, they exchanged 821 text messages, most of which were sexually explicit.

Their first meeting was cancelled but on another occasion, they met at a car park near Monks Cross where they performed a sex act.

He claimed to be a porn star and to have contacts through which she could appear in porn films when she was older, and offered her £100 if she would be filmed doing a sexual act with him.

Then he urged her to travel to his home to meet his friends for sex.

The girl travelled to his home and they spent the night together before he put her on a train at Scunthorpe.

Her parents, believing she had been at a schoolfriend’s house in York overnight, texted to ask where she was and on receiving her reply, contacted the police.

Once home, her mother confiscated her phone and handed it to police after seeing the text messages.

Detective Sergeant Sarah Bestington, of North Yorkshire Police, said: “The victim was a vulnerable young girl and Mark Lindsay took advantage of her for his own sexual pleasure. The length of the sentence handed down by the court reflects the seriousness of his offences.

“I hope this sentence serves as a reminder to anyone else who thinks it’s acceptable to engage in sexual activity with vulnerable young girls that the police will thoroughly investigate and ensure that you are brought to justice.”